Google

This afternoon, Google has updated its Google+ app for Android with a couple of new features and enhancements (via Droid Life). First off, the app now supports Android Beam. This feature will allow for users to share photos from within the Google+ app to other devices via NFC. The app also now supports DayDream. This is feature, which has been available in some third-party apps for a while, is essentially a screensaver for devices while they are being charged or placed in a dock. Now that the Google+ app supports this feature, it will work with pictures stored within the app.

What’s New:

Photos now supports Android Beam, so you can share photos via NFC
Photos also supports Daydream, so you can view your pics in screensaver mode when charging or docking your device
Individual photo details are now available in the drop-down menu
Opening “Locations” will automatically refresh your friends’ locations on the map

This update is a staged rollout, which means it may take a little while for it to rollout to every device. Keep an eye on the Play Store to see if your device has received the update.

In addition to updating its Android app, Google has also enhanced cover photos on the web version of Google+. Now, cover photos will show the entire image, as opposed to just a select portion. Photos are still the same size, so you don’t need to change anything in order to enhance your profile.

Google’s US ad revenues now bigger than magazines or newspapers

David Beren Nov 12 2013 - 12:11 pm PT

We all know that Google is BIG, BIG, BIG, but just how big is Google these days? During a keynote at Ignition 2013, Business Insider CEO Henry Bloodroot presented a slide that shows Google on course to exceed the revenues of both magazines and newspapers this year. In fact, almost all of Google’s expected $60 billion in revenue will come from advertising this year.

Google testing new attachment experience for Gmail

Jordan Kahn Nov 12 2013 - 7:49 am PT

Google Operating System blog, which has a good track record for leaking upcoming features for Google products, today posted a screenshot that shows a redesigned attachments UI for Gmail being tested internally. In the image above we can see the text “Dogfood confidential – submit feedback on the new attachments experience,” along with what looks to be a simplified interface for attachments in emails.

This is what attachments currently look like in emails:

And this is the new attachment interface:

The report speculates that Google could be dropping the “View” and “Download” options and instead just sending users to Google Drive when clicking an attachment.

Google’s App Translation Service now available to all developers

Jordan Kahn Nov 12 2013 - 7:33 am PT

Back at Google I/O in May, the company announced some updates rolling out to its Google Play Developer Console with some of the highlights including beta testing, staged rollouts, and a new app translation service. After a successful pilot program, Google has announced on its Android Developers blog that the App Translation Service is now open to all developers:

To help developers reach users in other languages, we launched the App Translation Service, which allows developers to purchase professional app translations through the Google Play Developer Console. This is part of a toolbox of localization features you can (and should!) take advantage of as you distribute your app around the world through Google Play… You’ll be able to upload your app’s file of string resources, select the languages you want to translate into, select a professional translation vendor, and place your order. Pro tip: you can put your store listing text into the file you upload to the App Translation Service. You’ll be able to communicate with your translator to be sure you get a great result, and download your translated string files

Developers interested in purchasing translation services can find the App Translation Service at bottom of the APK section in the Google Play Developer Console.

Google Glass will get stereo headphones and lots of new music features demonstrated by Young Guru

Seth Weintraub Nov 12 2013 - 6:15 am PT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5XoAkOuWdM

In its Explorer Story: Young Guru [through Google Glass], Google shows a lot of new features of the Google Glass upgrade and expected upgrades including the hardware addition of the stereo headphones.

We discussed Google Music hidden in the XE11 update yesterday but we’re seeing the Shazam type of song recognition, and some nice translation work as well.

Can’t wait! via

Google files patent for a neck tattoo with lie detector capabilities and a microphone

Chance Miller Nov 11 2013 - 5:22 pm PT

It’s no secret that Google thinks big when it comes to crazy, innovative technologies, and that appears to be just what the company is doing with its latest patent filing (via The Register). Google’s Motorola Mobility division, a year ago, filed for a patent relating to a temporary neck tattoo that can serve as a lie detector and includes a built-in microphone. It’s an incredibly out-there concept. Essentially, Motorola says you will be able to apply the tattoo with a sticky substance to your neck and wirelessly connect it to a mobile device.

The patent application suggests a couple of potential use cases. For one, Google points out that it could be used by security personnel that work undercover or in noisy environments. The application reads:

Mobile communication devices are often operated in noisy environments. For example, large stadiums, busy streets, restaurants, and emergency situations can be extremely loud and include varying frequencies of acoustic noise. Communication can reasonably be improved and even enhanced with a method and system for reducing the acoustic noise in such environments and contexts.

Google also suggests that it could be used in conjunction with a lie detector to tell when a user is speaking falsely, based on skin response.

Optionally, the electronic skin tattoo 200 can further include a galvanic skin response detector to detect skin resistance of a user. It is contemplated that a user that may be nervous or engaging in speaking falsehoods may exhibit different galvanic skin response than a more confident, truth telling individual.

Obviously this Google neck tattoo is still in the early stages of development, but it does raise some interesting questions as to what else Google is secretly working on.
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Google Glass XE11 update includes support for Play Music

Chance Miller Nov 11 2013 - 4:27 pm PT

Last week, Google began rolling out the XE11 update to Glass Explorers, touting a host of new features, such as new voice commands, directions home, and much more. Oddly unannounced, however, was support for Google Play Music. As first discovered by Phandroid, Glass users who wish to enjoy their music with the device can side load the Play Music APK and control it via voice controls. Once the app is loaded, simply say “OK Glass, listen to,” then the name of a song, artist, album, or playlist. A card will then pop up with results and allow you to specify what to play. A new card also stays pinned for further music control, including Play, Stop, Skip, Rewind, and volume control.

The music plays through the device’s bone conduction speaker, which means quality might not be the best, but that should improve with the upcoming hardware revision of Glass with a built-in earpiece.

Instructions to side load the APK are relatively simple, though do involve some basic ADB usage:

Download the latest Google Play Music APK here.
Go to Glass Settings > Device Info and turn on debug mode. Connect Glass to your computer.
Using the Android SDK, issue the command “adb install FILENAME.APK“, where “FILENAME” is the APK’s actual filename on your computer.
Enjoy the tunes!

If this odd post from a Google employee is to believed, the company has been working on this feature for the past several months and plans to officially announce it soon.

The LG Nexus 5 review: Are the downgraded G2 specs offset by pure Kit Kat? (Spoiler: Yes!)

Seth Weintraub Nov 11 2013 - 11:31 am PT

11 Comments

As I come up on a week of use with the LG Nexus 5, a few things become clear:

Tradeoffs were made to get this phone to $349. After some thought, I probably would have made the same decisions if $349 was my target price.
I hate carrier and manufacturer ‘improvements’ more than ever. Having a ‘pure Google‘ phone is liberating.
This will likely be my main Android phone for the next the year.
This won’t be a best seller, even if it should be because it is the best value phone we’ll see all year.

How did I draw these conclusions? Start the week ago flashback sequence…

Google Maps adds Waze real-time incident reports in 46 new countries & territories

Jordan Kahn Nov 11 2013 - 9:03 am PT

[tweet https://twitter.com/googlemaps/status/399942508399976448]

The benefits of Google’s acquisition of mapping app Waze back in June first popped up when it added real-time incident reporting to Google Maps on iOS and Android back in August. However, the feature was initially limited to users in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Switzerland, UK and the US. Today Google announced that it’s adding incident reporting in 46 new countries & territories on both the desktop and mobile.

Google hasn’t revealed the full list of countries (we’ll update if they do), but we can see Italy has been added from the screenshot attached to its tweet above.

Last week Google also added the real-time traffic and incident reporting from Waze to its new Google Maps desktop preview that it expects to roll out more broadly in the coming weeks.

Google makes it easier for Android & iOS devs to deploy cloud backends w/ Cloud Platform updates

Jordan Kahn Nov 11 2013 - 7:32 am PT

Google is making some improvements to its Google Cloud Platform today that will make it easier for developers to provide cloud services across apps on multiple platforms. After first launching a preview of Cloud Endpoints earlier this year, Google announced today that the web backend solution for app developers has moved to General Availability. Cloud Endpoints provide developers with an easy way of building a simplified cloud backend to deploy across their web, Android and iPhone apps:
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Netflix and YouTube account for over half of America’s Internet usage

Ben Lovejoy Nov 11 2013 - 4:53 am PT

Netflix and YouTube between them account for more than half of American traffic on the Internet, according to data from broadband company Sandvine, totalling 50.31 percent of peaktime downstream usage.

The numbers need to be viewed with a certain amount of caution, measuring data transmission rather than number of people watching. For example, Netflix sits well above YouTube not because it attracts more eyes, but because people watch longer, higher-quality videos on Netflix.

By this measure, companies would also be penalised for more efficient data-transmission protocols – squeezing more video into the same amount of data, so it’s possible that Amazon Video and Hulu are a little more than the also-rans they appear here – but with those kinds of numbers, the overall picture is clear.

YouTube’s share may further increase this month when offline viewing is introduced.

Google tracking your store visits to prove its advertising works

Ben Lovejoy Nov 11 2013 - 4:13 am PT

2 Comments

Digiday reports that Google has implemented the tracking system it described last month, allowing it to see whether people seeing ads for local stores do in fact visit them.

If someone conducts a Google mobile search for “screwdrivers,” for instance, a local hardware store could bid to have its store listing served to that user. By pairing that person’s location data with its database of store listings, Google can see if the person who saw that ad subsequently visited the store.

Google can do this by default on Android devices – it’s one of the things you agree to in the small-print when you switch on location services – and on iOS devices when people use Google apps.

It’s effectively the real-world equivalent of cookies. When you’re exposed to an ad for the Acme Hardware Store, a cookie will often be placed on your PC. When you visit the Acme website, it can read that cookie and see that the ad worked. This does the same thing for visits to physical stores.

Via Engadget

T-Mobile’s Nexus 5 arrives Nov. 14 online, Nov. 20 in-stores for $450

Jordan Kahn Nov 8 2013 - 12:35 pm PT

8 Comments

Today T-Mobile has made things official for availability and pricing on Google’s recently launched Nexus 5. Arriving for online orders Nov. 14 and in stores on Nov. 20, T-Mobile will be offering the 16GB Nexus 5 for $41.99 down with its usual monthly payments of $17. That brings the total cost of the device on T-Mobile up to $450, around $50 more than Google charges for the 32GB model and $100 more than the 16GB model on Google Play. That’s not unusual, however. Google has long subsidized the cost of its Nexus devices sold through Google Play.
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Poll: Do you like Google+ comments on YouTube?

David Beren Nov 8 2013 - 10:06 am PT

4 Comments

As news spread this morning that one of the original YouTube founders, Jawed Karim isn’t fond of Google+ YouTube comments, it begs the question what others think. The introduction of the new comment system led Karim to post his first comment on the site in 8 years:

“Why the fuck do I need a google+ account to comment on a video?”

Now, at first glance I’d say I agree with him, it just seems like another opportunity for Google to push its social media service right under a nose. On the flip side, there’s little argument that YouTube’s comment section is a black hole of the internet. If there’s even a remote possibility that Google+ can improve the quality of the conversation on YouTube, I say hell yes.

It remains unclear is Karim is truly the man responsible for the comment or if someone hacked his account. With the news that Feedly suddenly backtracked using Google+ authentication based on initial feedback, the question remains whether or not Google is making the right move pushing their service on YouTube?

So what say you, is Google+ the right comment system for YouTube? Would you like to see them spread to a blog like this one?

Google Glass prescription, fashion, & sport lenses coming early 2014 from Rochester Optical

Jordan Kahn Nov 8 2013 - 6:59 am PT

Update: Google reached out to us to say there is currently no relationship between Google Glass and Rochester Optics

When Google recently announced the second generation Google Glass rolling out to those in its Explorers beta program later this year, it also noted that the wearable will fully support a new line of prescription frames. Now, Rochester Optical, a NY-based manufacturer of lenses and eyewear products, has teamed up with Tim Moore of VentureGlass who struck a deal with Google to provide “custom prescription, fashion, and sport lenses” for Glass. Moore announced the news today on his Google+ page with the image above and linked to a press release from Rochester Optical.

As a state-of-the-art optical laboratory, one of the first wearable technology items Rochester Optical will be producing are custom prescription, fashion, and sport lenses for Google Glass, available for purchase in early 2014

With Tim’s proven background as co-founder of social media agency SayItSocial and founder of Venture Glass, he will provide tremendous value to Rochester Optical in their endeavors in both the retail and the online space. His company, Venture Glass, a wearable technology company, was chosen by Google for their Google Glass project.

While the new Glass will be available later this year, Rochester Optical’s press release notes that its lenses for the device will available to buy in early 2014.
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YouTube co-founder not feeling the new Google+ comment system

Jordan Kahn Nov 8 2013 - 6:36 am PT

4 Comments

Earlier this week Google officially started rolling out a new commenting system on both the desktop and in its Android app. The new system is integrated with Google+ with the goal of finally creating a “better commenting” system on YouTube with more relevant comments and new moderation tools for creators. A revamp of YouTube’s commenting system was a long time coming, but YouTube’s own co-founder isn’t too happy about the change.

Posting his first comment in nearly eight years to the same account that uploaded the first video ever to the service, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim is wondering why he needs a Google+ account to comment on the service he helped create:

“Why the fuck do i need a google+ account to comment on a video?”

It’s unclear if Karim is truly behind the comment, or perhaps it’s a joke from someone that got a hold of his account. Either way, Karim is not the only one that isn’t too happy about having to link a Google+ account to YouTube in order to continuing commenting.
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Feedly, our favorite Google Reader replacement adding Google+ (and others) sign-in

David Beren Nov 8 2013 - 5:17 am PT

Update: That was fast. Feedly has officially backpedaled on its decision to switch to Google+ sign-in after feedback from users:

[Update: the fact that this changing is forcing users to create a Google+ profile and that Google+ is not available in some companies and on some Google Apps domains outweighs the benefit of being about to login more seamlessly across devices. So we are going to rollback this change later this afternoon – Friday 1:00pm PST. We will try to make it optional in the future for some users who like Google+. Thanks for the feedback].

Feedly, our runaway favorite and the most popular Google Reader replacement is adding Google+ authentication to the service. A new post on Feedly’s blog indicates that as Google transitions from OAuth sign-in to Google+ so too will Feedly.

We are following on Google’s lead and transitioning feedly from Google OAuth to Google+ login. You will see this transition surface on cloud.feedly.com this week and on Android and iOS later this month.

The company teases that the introduction of Google+ authentication will “open the door to some interesting sharing features we have been working on.” That’s not to say Feedly is ignoring alternative log-in sources as well as the same post indicates they are also working on adding Twitter, Facebook and WordPress login options.

Are you starting to you use Google+ sign-in around the web?
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Google adds share link to today’s cute Google doodle

Ben Lovejoy Nov 8 2013 - 5:02 am PT

Perhaps in an attempt to persuade somebody, anybody, to use Google+, today’s Google Doodle celebrating the 129th birthday of ink-blot psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach has a link to share what you see in the semi-random projections.

You can click the ink-blots to generate new ones, and there are a few easter eggs in amidst the more abstract ones.

That Google barge: have sails, will travel

Ben Lovejoy Nov 8 2013 - 4:12 am PT

More information on that Google barge was revealed today by SFGate, including an artist’s rendering showing that it will be equipped with giant sails.

When completed, the full package is envisioned to be an “unprecedented artistic structure,” sporting a dozen or so gigantic sails, to be moored for a month at a time at sites around the bay […]

“We believe this curious and visually stunning structure will be a welcome addition to the waterfront, an experience unlike any other,” the proposal says …

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Results on Nexus 5 camera poll: Perhaps not as bad as (over 20,000) people thought

Seth Weintraub Nov 7 2013 - 11:06 am PT

6 Comments

[protected-iframe id=”492e2c57048e6da0fc41819addecc350-22427743-13611283″ info=”http://assets-polarb-com.a.ssl.fastly.net/api/v4/publishers/9to5mac/embedded_polls/iframe?pollset_id=200-nexus5iphone5s” width=”100%” height=”425″ style=”border: none;”]

The results from our Nexus 5 vs. iPhone 5s photo quality survey are in. The winner is probably not a surprise (the iPhone 5s) but the margin may have been a bit of a surprise after so many people rated the Nexus 5 camera so poorly (and Google subsequently offered promises of fixes).

At the time we turned on the answers, the iPhone won about 55% of the votes overall from over 200,000 votes placed.

Nexus 5 − 89724 (45%)

iPhone 5S – 110828 (55%)

After testing the Nexus 5 camera for a few days, it is pretty clear that it isn’t the best shooter out there, and even the best Android shooter. But it also isn’t that bad. In fact, I think it might be a bit better than other high profile phones like the MotoX. The weaknesses in the survey and in my own testing is in speed (it is slow, especially in low light), Low light images in general weren’t great and paradoxically over-exposure outside in well lit situations (though people in the survey seemed to appreciate that bias) seemed to happen frequently with the Nexus 5.

The bottom line however is that the Nexus 5 camera isn’t the best but it really isn’t that bad – especially for a $350 phone. Full results before we turned on the labels below:
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Just in time for the holidays: Google Shopping Paid Listing Ads in 8 more countries

Jordan Kahn Nov 7 2013 - 10:42 am PT

Google just announced that it’s rolling out Google Shopping– a.k.a paid product listing ads that appear in search results– in eight new countries. Starting today, Google users in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Turkey will be begin seeing what Google says are highly relevant ads that also include “rich product information” like images and pricing.

The Product Listing Ads appear in Google Search results as ‘Sponsored’ listings for queries that include “commercial intent.” But Google notes that it will also show product listings when it has “enough relevant products to match that user’s query.”

Users in the countries mentioned above should begin seeing the ads above text ads on the right side of search results starting today.

Google’s biggest European indoor Street View tour takes you inside one of London’s airports

Ben Lovejoy Nov 7 2013 - 6:26 am PT

Not sure I’ve ever seen it quite this empty …

Finding your way around large airport terminals can be one of life’s more frustrating experiences, especially when you’re in a hurry and for no reason any human being can understand, gates 22-24 are not between gates 21 and 25.

Google is helping lost travellers find their way around London’s second-largest airport, with full Street View imagery of both North and South terminals.

Take your virtual visit here.

Other Street View tours created with Google’s Trekker backpack includes the River Thames, the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Eiffel Tower, a Bond villain’s lair, a trek up to the top of Mount Fuji , animal park tours, a look around the inside of Dr Who’s TARDIS, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and a submarine.

Nexus 7 won’t be allowed on Verizon LTE until KitKat rolls, “systems issue” blamed

Ben Lovejoy Nov 7 2013 - 6:04 am PT